VertiCrop Takes Rooftop Farming To The Next Level(s)

A parking garage in downtown Vancouver has recently signed an agreement to install VertiCrop’s vertical greenhouse system on its rooftop, making it the first of its kind. VertiCrop’s system effectively transforms the 6,000 square feet rooftop into 16 acres of productive farmland by incorporating numerous ‘levels’ within the greenhouse. The patented technology can increase normal yields by 20 times and only requires 8% of the water used in conventional field farming.

The system is similar to an assembly line where the 12-foot high stacks of growing trays move along a conveyor to maximize exposure to sunlight and nutrients. The greenhouse is designed to be a closed loop system that produces healthy, leafy green vegetables. This type of technology improves local accessibility to healthy foods, especially in urban environments where the ability to grow such foods is often constrained.

In my review of Made of… New Materials Sourcebook for Architecture and Design, I discussed several new material innovations in architecture and design that will shape the future of these fields. But building processes themselves also seem to be re-invented. The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania recently presented…

Recently we tweeted about a postcard that we received from a mysterious city called Hipcescu. Later we found out that this place, also known as ‘the City of a Thousand Suns’, is the brainchild of Amsterdam-based copywriter and creative director Olaf Zwetsloot.

Mick Jagger once said about Amsterdam it’s the smallest metropolis in the world. Living in Amsterdam, I’m stay curious about what Jagger saw what I don’t notice. Amsterdam is with hardly a million inhabitants definitely a small city. But what makes a city a metropolis? Is it about the presence of multiple urban functions, about…

Swedish artist Michael Johansson (who in general makes the most brilliant series of heavily packed regular objects) created this handy packed city. The so-called ‘Umedalen Skulptur’ is an installation that can be visited in the Galleri Andersson/Sandström in Umeå, Sweden. It reminds Recyclart of good old Tetris, but then played with urban objects. The installation…